TITANIC
The Fateful Night
Jack Phillips, who was the first wireless operator on the Titanic, wrote
the message then coming in over his headphones he said," It's another
iceberg warning," he said to his assistant, Harold Bride. Bride brought the message up the bridge. He stepped out onto the Boat Deck and realized that he
was so lucky to land a job on such a magnificent new ship.
It was a sunny
yet cold sunday morning. Six other iceberg warnings followed. High up in the crow's
nest were Fred Fleet and his fellow lookout. It was now 11:40 p.m, the sea was calm and the air was bitterly cold. Suddenly, out of the dark loomed
a huge shape right ahead of Titanic. It was an iceberg! Fleet immediatly
sounded the alarm bell and picked up the telephone."What did you see?" asked
the duty officer."Iceberg right ahead!" he replied. The officer ordered the wheel to be turned as far as it would go. The engine room was told to reverse the engines while a button was pushed from the bridge to close the watertight
compartments.Slowly the ship started to turn, but it wasn't enough. For a
moment it looked as though the grand ship would pass the iceberg, but she hit Titanic's starboard side. A few tons of ice fell on the ship after the
collision, and Titanic stoped after a few minutes. Up in first class and some of second
class, no one knew that Titanic had hit anything. Down in the third class,it was
different, people were awaken by the sound of what seemed to be a gunshot.
Water had already started to fill the floor. Captain Smith knew Titanic
was in a great amount of trouble. Mr. Andrews was sent down, it was then they knew Titanic would sink, Captain Smith asked how much time there would be. He answered,
"An hour, 2 at most." No one could believe that the 850 feet long floating palace would sink...
Approximately 1500 lives were taken that fateful night of April 15 1912.
There were 705 survivers.
Titanic now lays on the bottom of the north Atlantic, a gravesite for 1500 people...
